Baghdad Metro Project Suspended

A project to build a 22km urban rail network in the Iraqi capital has been put on hold due to a lack of funds, an advisor to the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday.

Karim Nouri told AKnews that the cost of the project exceeds this year’s federal budget allocation.

The 14-station metro line was intended to link the northern districts of Baghdad to the center and transport up to 30,000 passengers per hour.

At the end of May, Baghdad provincial council announced that the $1.5 billion project, to be carried out by the French firm Alstom, would take five years to complete and be partly-funded by the French government.

Mr. Nouri did not say when or if work on the planned urban rail link might begin.